Roma did play some good stuff but they were toothless and deserved to lose as they offered very little threat going forward. I said David Pizzaro was a luxury and boy did he prove me right as he kept looking for impossible passes and giving the ball away so cheaply.
Manchester United without playing brilliantly on the night always looked the more threatening team as Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney got the goals that have all but finished this tie as a contest.
Ronaldo scored the 1st goal with a towering header following very good work by Rooney and a cross from Paul Scholes to put United 1-0 up against the run of play it has to be said.
The little chances that Roma carved up were wasted by the likes of Christian Panucci and Mirko Vucinic while Edwin Van Der Saar made a good save of a Roma header in the 2nd half.
United went on the attack almost for the 1st time after 20 minutes in the 2nd half and went 2-0 in front when an average cross was kept brilliantly in play by Park Ji-Sung and Alexander Doni made a mess of his header to leave Rooney with an easy tap in.
Roma that does not have a very good squad could have done with the services of Francesco Totti, Juan and Simone Perrotta tonight while United would be very confident of another semi final place as barring a miracle they are through.
Ratings
Roma
Alexander Doni 5 He is not a very good goalkeeper and showed why with the 2nd goal as he should have done so much better with Park’s header. For Roma to be challenging consistently for the big titles they need a better caliber goalkeeper.
Marco Cassetti 5. He did not have a very good match as he did not defend properly and he was not so effective going forward either.
Max Tonetto 6.5 He was possibly the most effective full back on show as he played a lot of good balls for his strikers and came forward to good effect for Roma. He was mysteriously taken off while the ineffective Cassetti was surprisingly left on.
Philip Mexes 6 He did his best to shut out the threat of Ronaldo and Rooney and did not have a bad game.
Christian Panucci 5.5 He had a couple of chances to score for his team and did not take them and his lack of pace was badly exposed by the more energetic United forwards.
Daniele De Rossi 6 He tried to drive his team forward but he plays far too deep for my liking but did not have a bad game.
David Pizarro 4.5 He is not my ideal player as he adds very little to a team in terms of offence and defence and kept on giving the ball away with his overly ambitious passes. I did not think Roma stood a chance of he started and that’s how it turned out. It was not totally his fault for the loss but he was a contributing factor and rather bizarrely played the whole 90 minutes.
Alberto Aquilani 5.5 He did not influence the game as he would have liked but he was not the poorest out there.
Ametrano Mancini 4.5 He was just totally disappointing and for him to have lasted the full 90 minutes showed the lack of numbers Roma have in their squad.
Mirko Vucinic 6 He tried his best against a well-drilled United defence and was not helped by the lack of support he received from his teammates.
Rodrigo Taddei 4 He had a shocker; he was absolutely appalling and should have been taken off earlier than he was.
Substitutes
Ludovic Giuly 5 He started off brightly but then faded but ought to have started the game in my view.
Cicinho 5 He came on for Tonetto but should have come on for Cassetti but too little effect.
Mauro Esposito He came on far too late to be graded.
Luciano Spalletti 4 You would not find too many managers at this level that Alex Ferguson would outfox tactically but Spalletti is 1 that Ferguson would always outwit as he is not tactically savvy. He is far too cautious and even when he makes substitutions they almost always seem to be the wrong ones. His starting 11 was wrong and his substitutions were also wrong. He is out of his depth at this level, I am sorry to say.
United
Edwin Van Der Saar 6 He did not have too much to do but he did produce 1 stunning save in the 2nd half.
Wes Brown 5.5 He did not venture forward too much and was not unduly troubled by Mancini.
Patrice Evra 6 He was good on the night in both defence and offence.
Emanuel Vidic 6 He was solid until he went down injured and this is the only disappointment for United on the night.
Rio Ferdinand 6.5 He did what he had to do with assurance and was not troubled by Roma’s attacks that were very erratic.
Michael Carrick 7 He was the man of the match as he was absolutely magnificent and the only blot on his copy book is that he should have scored when teed up by Rooney.
Paul Scholes 5.5 He is looking to be past his best and was not 1 of the better performers.
Anderson 5 He was United’s worst player on the night.
Park Ji-Sung 6.5 He rivaled Carrick as the best player as he worked so hard for his team both in defence and in attack. This was the best I have seen him in a United shirt.
Cristiano Ronaldo 6 He was very quiet until his goal and came to life towards the end of the game.
Wayne Rooney 6 He gave a very energetic display which was more of quantity than quality.
Substitutions
John O’Shea 5.5 He did not really have much to do but what he had to do he did well.
Owen Hargreaves 5 He did not really have to affect the game and he did not.
Carlos Tevez He came on too late to have any effect.
Alex Ferguson 7 He totally outwitted his counterpart with rarely seen tactically nous as everything he did was effective.
In the other tie Bojan Krkic scored the only goal to give Barcelona an away lead at Schalke so it is looking like a Barcelona versus Manchester United semifinal.